The letter said the bill gives the Army commander as much power as the prime minister. The Army chief could issue orders to all state agencies without having to follow the Administrative Procedure Act or the Administrative Court Act.

This went against the balance of power and the rule of law, it said.

The eight groups are Young People for Democracy, the Activists Club for Changes, Chulalongkorn University Social Critics, the Campaign for Human Rights, Young Progressive South East Asia (PSEA), NIDA Students for Democracy, the Third Alternative People's Front and the Young People's Organisation Network.

The bill states that those who take recourse to this law will not take civil and criminal responsibility, which means they will not be checked legally. "This means they can kill people without breaking Article 37," the letter said.

Article 25 of the bill would empower the Army commander to detain anyone, ban transport on all roads, search and arrest people 24 hours a day and transfer any government officials out of any area.

"The military can perform duties on behalf of other government agencies without having the government order a state of emergency."

The bill also allows military commanders in the four regions to be responsible for internal security in the provinces and command all state officials. "This means the commanders have more power than the interior minister," the letter said.

The bill would establish a military-cum-civil government by expanding military power into local administrative organisations.

"The bill will bring Thai society into an era of half democracy because, under such a law, the military would have as much power as an elected government.

"It means, no matter what constitution we have, this bill will be beyond the control of the highest law," the letter said.

"This is an attempt to establish a 'military regime' to replace the Thaksin regime to balance political power after the election. This is very dangerous to democratic development because the military is trying to cling to power by legislating to change the country from a constitutional monarchy permanently," the letter said.

The groups called on Surayud to immediately stop pushing for the bill to be passed into law.

"This is like digging a hole to bury himself and the country by seizing power from the people. This bill cannot claim to tackle [the insurgency] in the South because there is legislation in place to solve the problems there."